One of the students had been quite sick yesterday and due to some prior medical issues has decided to fly back to his family in Kuwait. We will miss Muhamed. Our tour leader and guide were busy sorting this out so morning plans had to be adjusted.
Only four of us wanted to travel into the city to visit an Indian astrologer. Our bus drove us half way and then we got onto rickshaws as buses are not allowed in some parts of the city. Our tour guide Abhijeet explained to the rickshaw drivers by phone how to get to our destination. of course we got lost and our rickshaw drivers all started arguing over it and one was making fun of the driver who talked on the phone by imitating him. It's great to witness this and to use body language and tone to unravel a Hindu argument.
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| Vu and I on a rickshaw. |
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| Charlene & Chantal - be afraid, be very afraid. |
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| For all your 'Druggist needs' |
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| The streets of Varanasi |
Finally we arrived at the astrologer and Chantal went first, Charlene 2nd. They had provided their birthday and time of birth, so he had made a complete chart of their stars etc. The reading takes some time so Vu and I wandered the narrow alleyways to wait our turn.
I bought some funny shirts for Blondy in a stall and the salesman showed me how to work out if a scarf was real silk. I could tell you the secret but then I'd have to kill you (haha). We just sat in the stall while he entertained us and showed us his beautiful silk products. I had to laugh as immediately outside there was a big cow lying down having a rest, very normal here.
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| The Hindu monkey god - god of body building - haha - seriously. |
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| The cow was waiting her turn. |
Back to the astrolger and it was my turn. I do not know my time of birth so he had to read my palm. He said I am very smart and quick witted...(he's very good isn't he? Haha). I am also very organized and an excellent planner (I think my friends would agree with this). I am a very strong female who has been and will be both parents to my kids (omg, so true). I will never have to worry about money as i am very wise financially and money always comes to me (dam it, he didn't mention i would win lotto). He also then told me some dirty stuff I can't put on this blog as my kids will read this but let's just say, also true...haha.
Vu had his turn with the astrologer and Charlene and I played with some local kids and had our photos with them. Everyone thought the astrologer was very accurate, but who knows.
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| Chatting with some local kids. |
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| Traffic management is taken very seriously here in India...NOT!!! |
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| This is a group of Muslims (as told to me by my muslim brother Ebrahim) that celebrate this day by beating each other with sticks. He said they are very crazy muslims, I offered to drop him off or beat him up if he wanted to partake. But he said no. |
Off to lunch at a German bakery, but the German chef was away and clearly the staff didn't have the recipes as there was not much on offer. I chose the usual Indian and had Patak Paneer which looks like a green algae sludge with large pieces of paneer cheese and fresh naan. It looks bad but it is so good. Most of the students here try to take a meal or day off the Indian food to give their stomach a break, I do the opposite. I eat curry three meals a day to train my stomach I am in charge...haha...knock on wood, not sick yet.
Chantal and I have a few tallies going, we have a daily talley of number ones and number twos we see on the side of the road. Today was a particularly slow day, only 8 number ones and 2 number twos. Haha... Our highest phlegm clearing score today was a 7, they are just not trying hard enough... Sounds awful but this is happening all around us, at least we can laugh at it...
Back on our rickshaws to travel back to the bus and then onto the hotel. Then we had to travel to the railway station for our departure. Let's just say it was quite fragrant here at the train station and so busy. We had porters come collect our suitcases and they lifted my massive pink suitcase onto a porters head and then picked up a second large suitcase and put that on top. Amazing, would have been at least 50 kilos total. We all raced through the crowded platforms to get to our First class train, I peered in the dark 'Second class' carriages (that is how they are labelled), they were packed in, but again unfortunately no chickens or goats.
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| My bag is the purple one4 and that weighs about 26kg...strong necks.. |
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| This is the second class train, ours was just slightly fancier than this one...only slightly. |
Our first class carriage is made up of bunks with 6 in a little area. Not much space but the four girls all shared one and we spent the time watching Pam Anne (she impersonates air hostesses from around the globe - the Indian one is brilliant, she says with her hand on the air hostess button" I am fingering the air hostess but she is not coming" with the head wobble...haha) and Eddy Izzard (cake or death - you got to look for it on you tube). So our time was spent laughing at our current train predicament. The bedding provided was quite dirty (probably washed in the Ganges against a rock) so luckily Abhijeet gave us a gift of a clean bed sheet...he is getting used to our semi-precious hygeiene rules. Lol.
The train toilet, all I can say is OMG. We are now rating Indian toilets, it wasn't as bad as the university toilet (still the worse), but not as good as a public toilet we used at a bus station. Trying to stand on the foot holds and stand in a yoga pose over the hole that empties direct onto the tracks below , while the train is moving is very difficult, but such a laugh. Multiple wet wipes used after exiting that pleasant little cultural experience.
I fell asleep about 11.
Shubh raatri
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